Table 3.

Handling the pancreas assessment of the recovery team

If the recovery team describes the pancreas quality as being poor, transplant surgeons react differently:
Category		Frequency*	Sample quote
1)	The interviewee adopts the assessment of the recovery team	3/14	If [the donor surgeon] says: ‘It’s obviously hardened’, then you needn’t discuss it, then it is hardened. (IP 09)
2)	The interviewee adopts the assessment only if he knows and trusts the recovery surgeon	3/14	There’s a matter of trust involved here. […] We know that people who have never seen (or) performed pancreas transplantations in their lives are recovering these organs. I think that’s difficult… the foundation of trust is missing there. If I know that this and that person has recovered the organ, [and that] he knows what he is doing, then I can …say l’ll take it. (IP 14) When I am informed that [the donor surgeon] is working with a center that has never had a pancreas transplant program, then, honestly speaking, I’m very sceptical… A macroscopic assessment from somebody who isn’t even familiar with it [pancreas transplant], you can completely forget that. (IP 08)
3)	The interviewee does not rely on the assessment of the recovery team. He prefers to accept the organ in (almost) any case and assess it personally	6/14	[Assessment of the donor surgeon] - I know, from experience, that there are people who have no idea whatsoever what a pancreas should look like. So as a rule I consider [their assessment] for my decision, [but] unless there’s an injury or something that clearly precludes [a transplantation], … I’d rather look at it personally. (IP 12) [We accept] even if the recovery team informs us that the organ is fatty or hard – if the parameters on paper are okay. (IP 05)

*The numbers do not add up to 14, because not every interview supplied sufficient information to allow for clear categorization.